Now billed as a 'spaghetti Western," this is actually a uncredited remake of the Graham Greene/ John Ford classic "The Fugitive," with a twist - in this version, the priest is not plagued with the any of the doubts or crises of courage that made Henry Fonda's characterization so memorable. So the film loses weight thereby, which it attempts to replace with th humor and humanity of Humberto Almazán's performance - and it almost succeeds, he is eminently likable as a grass-roots padre.
It's not a bad film, not an uninteresting film. I just kept getting haunted by flashbacks to the Ford original, with it's high-contrast shadows, and tense moments of confrontation between the priest, his own conscience, and the wannabe atheist soldier. Despite the clarity of the priest's commitment in this version, the original actually carried the message better.
It's not a bad film, not an uninteresting film. I just kept getting haunted by flashbacks to the Ford original, with it's high-contrast shadows, and tense moments of confrontation between the priest, his own conscience, and the wannabe atheist soldier. Despite the clarity of the priest's commitment in this version, the original actually carried the message better.